Alaskan

How to spell alaskan

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce alaskan

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does alaskan mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Alaska, its people, or its landscape.
2. nounA person who comes from or lives in Alaska.

Alaskan in a sentence

• adjective

  The cruise followed the alaskan coastline for a week.

• noun

  As a lifelong alaskan, he knew every trail in the valley.

• adjective

  She studied the alaskan fishing industry for her dissertation.

• noun

  The documentary interviewed one alaskan about life in winter darkness.

Where does alaskan come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word is built on the place name Alaska, which English took in the nineteenth century from Russian, who in turn borrowed it from the Aleut word 'alaxsxaq', meaning roughly 'the mainland' or, more literally, 'the object toward which the action of the sea is directed'. To the maritime Aleut people the term named the great body of land that the ocean broke against, and it was sometimes rendered as 'great land'. When the United States purchased the territory from Russia in 1867, the name was fixed in English spelling, and the adjective form 'Alaskan' was created by adding the familiar English suffix -an, the same ending found in 'American' and 'Mexican'. The spelling stays close to the place name, so the main thing to remember is the single s and single k: it is Alaska, not 'Alasska' or 'Alaskka'.

How the word is built

• Alask- (from Alaska, the U.S. state)
• -an (adjective/noun suffix meaning 'belonging to' or 'native of')